Seth MacFarlane to Work Academy Awards Double Duty; Read Nominations This Thursday Before Hosting Show

This year’s Academy Award host, Seth MacFarlane, has elected to co-present the 2012 Oscar nominations at the ungodly hour of 5:30 A.M. this Thursday. The Los Angeles Times notes that this act of Oscar-host overachiever-y has not been attempted since 1972, when Charlton Heston also awoke early to announce the award nominees before M.C.’ing that year’s ceremony. McFarlane will be revealing the latest nominations alongside the perennially lovely Emma Stone, who stars in the forthcoming Gangster Squad.

The Family Guy creator announced the news on Twitter, adding that he and Stone will “also be revealing the name of Kanye & Kim’s baby (Zeus).”

The nominations will be unveiled at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Beverly Hills’ headquarters, which will have been on security lockdown since Wednesday night. The Washington Post reports that those involved in the nominations ceremony will be forced to surrender all mobile devices “and undergo frisking.” Even with seemingly a tight security plan in place, the Academy accidentally published a nominee page on its site early last week, when Oscars.org noted that costume designer Sharen Davis had been nominated for her work in Django Unchained. (In reality, voting for nominations had not yet concluded, and the page has since been taken down—though VF.com's Marnie Hanel got a first reaction from Davis here.)